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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

General information

duration: 60 minutes (listening time)

niveau: C1

About the materials

Text

The text has been taken from Project Gutenberg. There you can also download the whole text.

Please keep in mind that the texts for our audio books are rather old. Therefore they may contain old-fashioned vocabulary with slightly outdated meanings.

Audio Book

The Audio Book has been taken from Librivox.org. There you can also download the whole audio book. Many thanks to Laurie Anne Walden who recorded this audio book.

About the book

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and was first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27, 1922. Development rights to the story were held for years by the late Hollywood mogul Ray Stark. He retained those rights until his death in 2004, when they were purchased from his estate. The story was adapted into the 2008 film of the same name, which was directed by David Fincher.

Plot

The short story begins with the birth of the protagonist, Benjamin, in 1860. Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a seventy-year-old man, and when his father first visits him, a few hours after his birth, he already is able to speak. To avoid embarrassment, Benjamin's father forces him to shave off his beard and dye his hair in order to look younger. He also forces Benjamin to play with the neighbourhood boys, and buys him toys and forces him to play with them throughout the day. Benjamin obediently plays with them, but only to please his father.
As the story progresses it soon becomes apparent to the Button family that Benjamin is aging backward, which astounds them beyond belief…
Listen to the audiobook to find out more.

About the author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: "This Side of Paradise", "The Beautiful and Damned", "Tender Is the Night" and his most famous one, the celebrated classic "The Great Gatsby". A fifth, unfinished novel, "The Love of the Last Tycoon", was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that dealt with themes of youth and promise along with despair and age.

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